We have one location that uses the big, heavy, dirty looking cue ball, I always called it the mud ball. They also have the shittiest tables with 30 year old, dead balls, dead cushions and dirty, worn out cloth on the tables. Only one table uses the mud ball cue, the other has the maroon dot ball standard used most other places. The table with the mud ball also has a wall on one side, and two columns on the other to impede your shot. I bring a 42" cue to those matches, and often even that is too long. You literally have to open a window to stroke normally for some shots. Most of us in the league hate playing in that place, but strangely enough the team that uses that as their home location does surprisingly well as a team, especially playing at home.
That big heavy cue just seems to have a mind of it's own for lots of lower skill level players. Draw shots become stop shots, and anything else just follows and follows. Lots of scratches. We remind each other all night about it, but it still bites you occasionally. It definitely changes your strategies.